Runners Will Receive Free Race Photos At San Francisco Marathon

Runners in the San Francisco Marathon will pass over the Golden Gate Bridge. Photo: National Park Service

Each photo will available for a free download.

For runners taking part in this summer’s San Francisco Marathon, you’re in luck: The event will offer free race photos.

That means no more hemming and hawing over whether or not to click the purchase link on the watermarked photos runners typically receive via e-mail a few days post-race.

This time, they will be free.

“We represent the greater San Francisco Bay Area, and we feel that the marathon should be representative of the culture and community we represent,” the marathon’s race director, Tom Huston, told Runner’s World. “Because we are the tech capital of the world, we wanted to take a more forward-thinking approach.”

The race hired Gameface Media to take photos during the July 27 event. Once the photos are processed and the runners in them are identified after the race, they will be available for download online. Runners can order prints for an extra fee.

The photos will contain a sponsor’s logo in one corner, which is how the race is able to offer the photos to runners for free.

Gameface Media, according to Runner’s World, is the largest company in the nation to offer free event photos. It expects to take about 300,000 snapshots at the San Francisco Marathon, which it believes will amount to roughly 2.5 million Facebook impressions via posts, shares and likes. This means lots of face time for whichever company sponsors the photos.

“The really exciting part is that when you add up what those photos are worth under the traditional model, it means we’re giving away more than $1 million worth of photos,” said Gameface Media CEO David Lavallee.

“We’re seeing about eight minutes of interaction with the photos when people are coming from desktop and four minutes from mobile. People really like this idea of surfing around a bit and looking through the photos.

“We believe this is the most compelling digital content in the world,” Lavallee added. “It’s a personal picture of you doing something you’re happy about, and for the first time it’s going to be free for major marathon participants.”